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    <title>LuaDoc: Documentation Generator Tool for the Lua language</title>
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	<div id="product_name"><big><b>LuaDoc</b></big></div>
	<div id="product_description">Documentation Generator Tool for the Lua language</div>
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<h1>LuaDoc</h1>
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				<li><a href="architecture.html#architecture">Architecture</a></li>
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<h2><a name="architecture"></a>Architecture</h2>

<p>
LuaDoc's processing can be divided in two distinct steps: parsing and 
generation. The parsing step take as input a set of <code>.lua</code> files 
and must produce a <code>Documentation</code> object. A generator takes a 
<code>Documentation</code> object as input and produces a set of output files. 
It's up to the generator to decide which output format it will generate.
</p>
<p>
The parsing step is executed by a component called 
<strong><code>taglet</code></strong>, while the generation is handled by a 
component called <strong><code>doclet</code></strong>. This architecture is 
shown below.
</p>
<p align="center">
<img src="architecture_h.png" alt="Architecture"/>
</p>

<h2><a name="taglet"></a>Taglet</h2>
<p>
LuaDoc does not impose a documentation format. It does relies on an internal 
representation of the documentation. This representation is described in the
<a href="#documentation">Documentation</a> section. If the developer wants to
use a custom documentation format the <code>taglet</code> component can be 
replaced.
</p>
<p>
Writing a new taglet is a matter a implementing a single method:
</p>
<pre class="example">
function start (files, doc)
</pre>
<dl>
	<dt><strong>files</strong></dt>
	<dd>a list of file (or directory) names.</dd>
	
	<dt><strong>doc</strong></dt>
	<dd>a preprocessed documentation object.</dd>
</dl>

<p>
LuaDoc comes bundled with a standard taglet implementation. This implementation 
takes all file names in the list and produce the documentation object using a set
of tags described in the section <a href="manual.html#howto">How To</a>. If an 
item in the list is a directory it iterates recursively throw all files in the 
directory looking for filenames with <code>.lua</code> or <code>.luadoc</code> 
extensions.
</p>

<h2><a name="documentation">Documentation</a></h2>
<p>
Instead of defining a documentation format LuaDoc defines an internal 
representation of a documentation object. Taglets and doclets must conform with 
this format.
</p>
<p>
The documentation object is described below. Some description elements are explained
below:
</p>
<dl>
	<dt>List</dt>
	<dd>table indexed by number. Example: List&lt;string&gt;
	{
		[1] = "x",
		[2] = "y",
		[3] = "z",
	}
	</dd>
	
	<dt>HashMap</dt>
	<dd>table whose numerical indices are the key values for objects. Example: HashMap&lt;string, string&gt;
	<pre class="example">{
		[1] = "x",
		[2] = "y";
		[3] = "z";
		["x"] = "x coord",
		["y"] = "y coord",
		["z"] = "z coord",
	}</pre>
	</dd>
</dl>

<h3>DOCUMENTATION</h3>
<pre class="example">
{
	files = <i>HashMap&lt;string, DOCUMENTATION_ELEMENT&gt;</i>, -- indexed by file name
	modules = <i>HashMap&lt;string, DOCUMENTATION_ELEMENT&gt;</i>, -- indexed by module name
}
</pre>

<h3>DOCUMENTATION_ELEMENT</h3>
<pre class="example">
{
	type = ["file" | "module"],
	name = <i>&lt;string&gt;</i>, -- full path of file or name of module
	doc = <i>List&lt;BLOCK&gt;</i>, -- all documentation blocks
	functions = <i>HashMap&lt;string, BLOCK&gt;</i>, -- only functions, indexed by function name
	tables = <i>HashMap&lt;string, BLOCK&gt;</i>, -- only table definitions, indexed by table name
	},
}
</pre>

<h3>BLOCK</h3>
<pre class="example">
{
	class = ["module" | "function" | "table"],
	name = <i>&lt;string&gt;</i>,
	summary = <i>&lt;string&gt;</i>,
	description = <i>&lt;string&gt;</i>,
	comment = <i>List&lt;string&gt;</i>,
	code = <i>List&lt;string&gt;</i>,
	param = <i>HashMap&lt;string, string&gt;</i>,
},
</pre>

<h2><a name="doclet"></a>Doclet</h2>
<p>
The primary job of an <strong><code>doclet</code></strong> is to take a 
<code>Documentation</code> object and generate some kind of output.
LuaDoc is bundled with an implementation that generates HTML files.
</p>

<p>
Writing a new <strong><code>doclet</code></strong> is a matter a 
implementing a single method:
</p>
<pre class="example">
function start (doc)
</pre>
<dl>
	<dt><strong>doc</strong></dt>
	<dd>a documentation object.</dd>
</dl>


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